As many of you reading this know, I have a tradition of baking my children birthday cakes following the theme of their choice. Sometimes these themes are easier to carry out than others! When I asked B what he wanted for his 6th birthday cake, he informed me that he wanted a Plateosaurus. I had never heard of the Plateosaurus before, not having memorized his Dinopedia the way he has, but he turned to the appropriate page and showed me what he hoped I could do for him:
I tried to get the 2 colors shown in the picture by coloring all the icing light brown with cocoa, and then adding blue to half of it, but it didn't work because I bought all-natural food color, which turned out not to affect the color of the icing strongly enough. It might have tinted pure white icing a light blue, but the effect of the cocoa completely overwhelmed it.
For the teeth, I had hoped to find yogurt raisins in the bulk section of the same health food store where I got the food color, but they were out of stock, so I used slivered almonds instead. And B insisted that both the eye and nostril should be made of raisins. The leaf was satisfyingly easy - I simply cut off a leaf from our cycad tree outside! Even if cycads weren't part of the Plateosaurus' diet, they were around in the time of the dinosaurs, so it felt quite authentic. Here's the finished product:
He wanted just the head, with a leaf in its mouth, as shown in the picture. It actually turned out to be one of my more successful efforts. I baked a basic rectangular cake, and cut it out in the shape of the head using a paper stencil (so I could pencil in the shape before taking the knife to the cake):
I tried to get the 2 colors shown in the picture by coloring all the icing light brown with cocoa, and then adding blue to half of it, but it didn't work because I bought all-natural food color, which turned out not to affect the color of the icing strongly enough. It might have tinted pure white icing a light blue, but the effect of the cocoa completely overwhelmed it.
For the teeth, I had hoped to find yogurt raisins in the bulk section of the same health food store where I got the food color, but they were out of stock, so I used slivered almonds instead. And B insisted that both the eye and nostril should be made of raisins. The leaf was satisfyingly easy - I simply cut off a leaf from our cycad tree outside! Even if cycads weren't part of the Plateosaurus' diet, they were around in the time of the dinosaurs, so it felt quite authentic. Here's the finished product:
The young man was pleased with the result!
Next week, H will be 4, and he's requested a pink robot cake (yes, pink is still his favorite color). Tune back next week to see how that turns out!
Very impressive Jane! I feel that the cycad is quite authentic as well. I hope B appreciates the significance of his backyard flora.
ReplyDelete